Page 4 of Ricochet

“We’re not enemies, Nick. This isn’t me threatening you. You can easily just give me the files, and we’ll part ways.”

I couldn’t, though. He knew I couldn’t. If I walked right then, I’d be dead by morning. A man without purpose was a danger to himself, and the only thing that’d kept me alive so long was one painful hard-on for revenge.

“I’ll do it. What’s the plan?”

“I’m not going to lie to you.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin the size of a gold dollar, flipping it into the air. “They’ve branched off. Expanded operations from the small crew of hitmen that invaded your home three years ago.” Every one of the crew had gone on to bigger and better things. And why not? They were financed by the mayor and protected by the police. They owned the fucking city. Entrepreneurs in crime. “It’ll be you against the most ruthless collection of underbelly scum there ever was. Drug dealers. Sex traffickers. Arms dealers. And they’ve got connections. The odds of you surviving this …” He opened his palm to a completely blank side of the coin—an anomaly. “Uncertain.”

“What’s it matter in the end, anyway?”

Alec’s jaw ticced. “You of all people should know the difference between a mercy and a vengeance kill. Perhaps I should leave you to face the latter on your own.”

It all came down to one night. One night I would make that corrupt motherfucker Culling remember the family he’d slain, the lives he’d destroyed. I’d take whatever pathetic, tiny heart may be beating inside his chest, tear it out, and watch his world fade all around him, while he took his final breath.

“I said I’ll do it.” I’d do it by stealing away the very woman that gave him breath to begin with. “Now tell me the goddamn plan to kidnap her.”

“Personally, I think you’re crazy for doing this alone.” His eye squinted as his cheeks caved with a puff of his cigar.

“Certifiable, Brother. Now what the fuck’s the plan?”

Blowing the smoke in one lazy exhale, he tipped his head back. “A celebration at the new hospital, the opening of the cancer center, Friday night. She’s to accompany him. He’s dedicated the Healing Arts Center in her name. Masquerade Ball … how perfect.” He sniffed, scratching his cheek with the thumb of his cigar-toting hand. “It’s a closed, black tie affair. Only one bodyguard. Hospital security, but they won’t be anticipating trouble. You’ll slip out through the underground passageway that connects the hospital to the old dorm rooms.”

The hospital had been closed down and abandoned for years, before Michael Culling provided the much needed funding to reopen its doors. One of the largest trauma centers in the city. How sweet. If only the city knew the majority of Michael’s business dealings were signed in blood. “And the cameras? Crowd?”

“Idiots practically use the default settings. I’ve hacked through a hole in their security system. You won’t have a problem. As for the crowd …” He puffed on his cigar. “I’ve arranged a distraction.”

“What kind of distraction?”

His lips stretched into a smile. “A party crasher.”

“I don’t like the sound of this.”

“A little trust, if you will.” In truth, Alec’s brilliance would guarantee success of the kidnapping. No doubt, he’d already thought of every angle, every loophole. Every possible scenario had probably been teased out with immediate resolution. I trusted Alec because of that. “Culling’s preoccupation with his missing wife will render him careless. Keep him from focusing on the big picture.”

“And then what?”

“You’re to hold her while negotiations take place.”

My stomach knotted at that—a detail we hadn’t discussed when he first proposed the ridiculous idea. “Babysit the bitch? ‘The hell did I ever do to you?”

“Fret not, my friend. If Culling refuses, and he will surely refuse, you’ll have the pleasure of killing both of them.” He blew another plume. “Jack off to that thought for a while.”

“Good. I’m looking forward to giving the two of them the same slow and painful death that I’ve suffered every night for three fucking years.”

Alec’s gray eyes bore into mine, and goddamn if I didn’t get a sense he was about to say something punch-worthy. “There is an alternative.”

“No.” I shook my head at the sinister lift of his brow. “I know what you’re going to say. No.”

“It’s not weak to move on, Nick. You could start over.”

Lurching forward brought me at arm’s length from him, just enough room to knock out that perfect row of teeth he sported. “I’ve done the legit life once. And what about you, Alec? Why don’t you just move on? Pretend shit never happened.”

“What makes you think I haven’t?”

Impossible. A bluff, no doubt. Alec’s thirst for bloodshed rivaled my own. No woman could possibly get in the way of that.

“One of these days, the light is going to flip on, and you’ll realize the hits you’ve suffered in darkness were your very own shadow. Honor your family with vengeance, but don’t make yourself one of your own victims.”

Alec had a problem with the final act, the part of the plan where he put a bullet straight between my eyes and let me fall with the rest of them. A mercy kill. It was the only way I’d agreed to carry out such an insane act of revenge.